...Sitting in an empty classroom. I kind of like sitting in an empty room. It's really quiet. But I'm supposed to be sitting in a room of 22 students. I'm not sure the students know that, though.
I took last Friday and this Monday off to go visit my family in Arkansas. I won't get to travel for much longer, and I wanted to see everyone again before my new baby boy arrives (he's due in January). So we finally found a decent fare and off we went. We had a fantastic time.
I get back to work on Tuesday, having no idea what wonders were awaiting me. I will have to give you some background.
At the end of last school year, the English Department at my school was short three teachers. One teacher retired, one found a much better job, and one is on long-term leave after a car accident.
Our enrollment for this school year is up, so we have a lot of students sitting in empty classrooms. CPS won't hire more teachers until it has determined that the numbers of enrolled students justifies it. So for the past six weeks, teachers have been covering classes without pay. And if no teacher volunteered (and I use the word "volunteered" sarcastically) to cover a class, there was no teacher in the classroom at all. Just a few kids sitting by themselves.
CPS conducted an attendance audit a couple of weeks ago -- meaning someone from downtown came to our school and helped count each student. This gave us the impression that we would be hiring more teachers.
But apparently Arne Duncan (CPS's Chief Educational Officer) is mad at my school. Someone anonymously emailed him to complain that there were not enough teachers, and that teachers were being forced to cover classes during their lunch periods without pay. The emailer then asked why Arne didn't care about the teachers or students at my school.
My principal was notified of the email, and she is now saying that we were given permission to hire more teachers, but as a result of this email, Arne is mad and has pulled those positions.
Which makes absolutely no sense. I think it is much safer to assume that she is mad and wants to know who sent the email. Since she doesn't know, she is going to take care of things her own way.
I got to work on Tuesday to find out that all of my classes have been dissolved. I was teaching freshmen reading, which is not required for graduation. It was just a supplemental class to help those students who needed extra work in reading and writing.
In each class on Tuesday, all day long, the programmer's assistant came into my classes and gave the kids their new schedules. Which resulted in their being crazier than ever. I kept asking the assistant when I would get my new schedule, but he said he didn't know.
At the end of the day, I went to the programmer and asked if I had a new schedule. He gave
As we can't hire more teachers, I have to be moved into classes that are required for graduation. I'm now teaching one section of freshmen English and four sections of junior English.
The freshmen class I now have has been covered by a Spanish teacher. Three of my junior classes were being covered by other teachers, but my 8th period class has never had a teacher. Or a sub. Just kids sitting by themselves for six weeks. I thought they would be excited to have a teacher, but they are not. Apparently they enjoyed having nothing to do for six weeks.
Yesterday I took my new 5th period class to the auditorium to have their school pictures taken. A kid came in and said that a teacher told him that she was his teacher and not me. I went to investigate and found out that that was no longer my class. They had a sub again.
After school I asked the programmer to please give me that class again, since they were actually happy to have a teacher and I could tell they were a good class. He said he fixed the mistake, and that class is now on my roster in the computer system we use for grades and attendance.
But none of the kids (any of my new students from any of the five classes) has been given a new schedule. So I'm assuming my students are in the other teacher's classroom (the teacher who is a sub).
Of course, today is Homecoming at my school, so it could just be that my entire class is in the hall getting ready for the parade. It's hard to say.
Doesn't that seem ridiculous?
There's the bell -- now we shall see if I have any students in my 6th period class. No one so far. I'm not holding my breath.
I forgot to mention one somewhat funny part of this narrative. When the programming assistant came into my classes to give the kids their new schedules, they all freaked out. So he told them that they had gotten so much smarter in the last five weeks that they no longer needed that extra reading class. That they were all smart now. Swear to God he told all my kids that. Which means I must be an amazing teacher to foment such improvement so quickly! Maybe I'll get a raise.
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Since you're pregnant, bring a good novel, some healthy snacks, and a big bottle of water to school every day. Find those empty classrooms, sit and read and eat and drink, maybe navigate OS for a while, and don't report your lack of students to anyone. That single day you described last time earned you a couple months off.
These days I suppose music is a privilege, not an academic subject.
:P
Keep fighting the good fight!
I've tried to get audiences with power brokers for jobs I've applied for at CPS ---one in the group that trains principals---and they don't return phone calls or show any real awareness of the bigger world out there. . .
I'm guessing this isn't the only story like this out there?
So thank you for telling it!
Lainey, I always think I've seen it all, and then I find something new. My husband asked me the other day, "How can anything at your job surprise you anymore?" I said, "The fact that I can still be surprised proves I'm not dead inside." So there's that!
Chicago Guy, I have a million stories like this one. Absolutely incredible. I read that Arne Duncan is on the short list for Education Secretary if Obama wins. I do not think that is a good idea.
Jodi -- I'm sorry that happened to your son. Amazing, huh?
And Olga -- well, you know how it is!
The baby will be here soon and you will be busy and sleep deprived. So perhaps it is good you have some downtime.
This is one more example of how tangled up politics and people's egos and their fears of being judged can get. Situations like yours are the reason teachers so often don't--CAN'T--stay in the field. They don't get to TEACH.
Higher ed seems to be the last place where a teacher can teach and not have as much crud to deal with. And because colleges don't have the same obligation to keep serving students who make it abundantly clear they don't WANT to be served, the instructor actually has some leverage. It's voluntary to be there and the college can pull the plug if a student doesn't attend classes or consistently makes truly lousy grades OR is disruptive in class. All of that makes it so much more about teaching and loving the subject again.
I'd encourage you to look at college teaching. As much as we care, I don't think some of the worst things about public schools are within our power to fix.
I teach in Florida in a medium sized public school district that is reasonably well managed and I have a young but very competent principal who is very supportive of his staff. I have been here for 15 years and taught in rural Minnesota before that. Although my school is a good one to work in relatively speaking the insanity promulgated by NCLB is fast making teaching an extremely schizophrenic profession. I am a couple of years away from retiring and am looking forward to it (if there are any pension funds left).
The fraud and increased bureaucracy encouraged by NCLB is hitting our Title One school hard. The biggest issue for me is less and less time to teach and more and more time to test. I am losing over a week this Fall to testing (and another to hurricanes). So even in a well run school there is a surreal quality to teaching that I did not see 10 years ago in Florida and certainly not 20 years ago in the community and teacher run schools in Minnesota that were some of the best in the nation at the time. I actually taught at a school run by its teachers where everybody sat Down and decided what to spend money on and made decisions on where to place children according what we observed about their needs and abilities in our classrooms.
I wish you well on your teaching career (you sound like a keeper!) and on your new family addition. Have you thought about what kind of education you hope to have for your child? Maybe that's the kind of school you should be teaching in.
The DC schools have been a mess for years, and when I lived in Baltimore, they were horrible as well.
Well meaning child-less folk suggest that if committed parents got involved in the urban public system, it would make a difference. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time and my child needs an education now.
Thanks for posting this, Amy.
I can barely even believe that this is really happening here, today.
Just...wow.
The school where I teach has its problems, but I think, after reading this, I'm never going to complain again.
Thanks for fighting the good fight, Amy.
(Have you begun counting down the days to your maternity leave!?)
Let me see if I have this right: the school doesn't have enough money to hire the teachers it needs. So -- it hires substitute teachers while full-time staff are sitting in empty classrooms. Meanwhile, students sit in classrooms without teachers for weeks at a time. It seems that the school is essentially run by a "programmer" and "programming assistant" who can't find their collective asses with both hands, in addition to not being able to match teachers with classrooms and students. Meanwhile the "Chief Educational Officer" (apparently the person ultimately responsible for this cluster fuck) gets pissed and pulls positions that were already approved.
When I read stuff like this I think "maybe the conservatives are right after all . . . ."
Secondly, all I can do is send a large dose of psychic sympathy your way. I honestly don't know how your manage to do it without going crazy. I love what you said in your reply about expectations. It's exactly how I feel every year. I go to work expecting things to be different, expecting better students or whatever I happen to have decided to be optimistic about that year, because if I don't it means I've lost a part of my soul. Maybe that's TMI? :D.
To LydiethA I wanted to say -- while much of what you say is still true about teaching in academia, it only covers those on tenure track, in my experience. Those of us toiling away at yearly contracts or working as adjuncts are steadily and surely losing our autonomy and our ability to manage classroom behavior without interference from the top.
Lydieth -- I would have to get a PhD to teach on the college level, since my master's degree is in secondary ed. I've considered doing that at some point, but it will be awhile. And what Hillbilly Aunt writes about her experiences isn't very encouraging!
Aunt and Dorinda -- my trip to AR was great. I gained 7 pounds in the last month according to my midwife Thur. I blamed it all on Arkansas. I have to now behave myself! I told her -- I can't drink at work -- let me eat!
Mishima -- clusterfuck is a good description of my job. Completely ridiculous. Although in Arne Duncan's defense (I don't defend him often), I don't think he's why we don't have more teachers. I think that is just what my principal says. My theory is that she hires her friends (nonteachers) and gives them teacher position numbers, which makes CPS believe we are fully staffed when we aren't. I wish I knew how to prove that. But yeah, I sometimes think the Republicans might be right about education, too. Our only hope is to close down every school and start completely over (in CPS, anyway).
Mary -- I guess one slight advantage of my job is that NCLB has little bearing on what we do. We've been on probation for so long that I don't think anyone even notices that our scores are in the toilet. There seem to be no consequences, so we stay on probation and don't make any changes, except for regularly adopting new curricula. Ugh.
HipChic -- my husband and I have had many conversations about where we will educate our children. We are going to try public, but I make no promises. And you are right -- your kids need an education, and it shouldn't have to be a political statement.
Beta - I'm jealous! Will your school hire me???
Kaysong -- I always worry that people are going to think I make this stuff up. Seriously -- it's a nightmare. And nothing is being done to help the students. But no one cares. I keep thinking a parent will call the school and complain that his or her child has been sitting in an empty room for six weeks. Not one parent has done that. So no one has any impetus for change. I just don't get it.
I read one horrendous paragraph in a book I am reading about what to do to fix the economy. I might retype it and post for you and Olga, and the other teachers here on this thread. Something might just "click" when you read it...
In the meantime, Ami, Florida is DYING for more teachers. They hammer and hammer the FCAT testing (NCLB) but in its mind-numbingness, there may be a respite from the insanity that you have been enduring...Love you!
OMgosh! How insane it is...the shananegens and what is the outcome of such inane hiccups within the ranks??
What is this telling the kiddiwinks?!
That the adults (and I use the term lightly here!) cannot get their act together ....the POWERS THAT BE have got a bee in their bonnet and that's that.....
Hmmm.... perhaps they should look up the term "educate"......
(wonder if there are any classes for that?!)
Wishing you all the very best with your OWN coming addition!!
(smiles)
xx
this is a post script:
I really enjoyed your post!
*_*